


Basket Boys

by chocolatecastleinthesky



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish is Bad at Feelings, Lack of Communication, M/M, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch is Bad at Feelings, pynch - Freeform, tad carruthers crush on adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 21:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20477762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatecastleinthesky/pseuds/chocolatecastleinthesky
Summary: Aglionby has a student basket auction fundraiser... what happens when Adam is forced to participate?





	Basket Boys

Adam didn’t know how it this had happened. This was up in the most humiliating things he had ever been subjected to and it made him wonder if his scholarship was worth it. He tried to tell himself that Gansey was doing this. It wasn’t only him. But the others, they were doing it for their clubs. He was coerced into doing this under the suggestion of helping support other scholarship students; he was the only one he knew of. He glanced around the park, filled with people from all around town. He wished he could disappear.

* * *

~One week Earlier

“I don’t get it. Why are you literally acting like a fucking prostitute for the damn rowing team?” Ronan pulled a flyer off the noticeboard by their lockers advertising the weekend event. In bright fun colors it advertised the “Raven Boys Basket Social” with a picture of a couple on a picnic.

Gansey pulled it out of his hands to repin it. “It’s a lunch picnic with a sponsor. No different than many of parents’ parties, except that it’s shorter.”

Adam shook his head but kept his mouth sealed shut after the meeting he’d had with the headmaster that morning. Ronan glanced at him. “No comment, Parrish?” Adam shrugged and shut his locker. “Well, you couldn’t pay me enough to get up there.”

Neither of the other boys could hear it over the noise of their classmates jostling their way towards the car lot when Adam whispered, “If only.”

* * *

Adam got home from his shift Saturday morning and stared at his unmade bed with deep-seated longing. He had only gotten about two hours of sleep the night before with a late shift at Boyd’s, homework, and early factory shift. Instead of climbing back in, though, he turned for a shower, lingering a little longer than usual to wake up.

He dragged each limb into his clothes for the day; his nicest jeans and solid colored t-shirt. He drove to the public park and walked over to the amphitheater, where the basket fundraiser would be held. He could feel the humiliation sinking in as he approached the others, all voluntarily there. He wandered over to check in, and then found Gansey chatting with Henry Cheng. Gansey’s smile couldn’t be contained.

“Good morning, Adam! Isn’t today a great day for something like this? It’d be better if we could go out looking for Glendower, but if we’re going to do something for the school, might as well be outside!”

Adam grunted a response and turned to find a shady spot to sit and read until he was needed. This activity worked for almost an hour as people trickled into the park, both local and from larger cities, right up until Blue and her family arrived.

Finally, the event started. They were going in alphabetical order by last name and Cheng was one of the first to go, offering a music picnic basket that involved an evening at a local band concert with desserts. The bidding went over $3,000 before being sold to a lady from D.C.

When Gansey’s turn arrived, Helen upped the bidding before backing off with a laugh. Adam wasn’t surprised when his basket went for nearly $5,000 by a family friend of theirs. His basket contained caprese salads, breads, cheeses, and club soda. Ronan whispered into his ear, catching him off guard. “Who wouldn’t pay that much to listen to him talk about Glendower?” Adam couldn’t help the startled laugh, even as he watched the progression towards his own.

Soon, he was on deck. Ronan watched the way his entire body shifted into discomfort as he walked towards the stage. His eyes widened as he watched Adam walk onto the stage.

“Here we have young Adam Parrish, a brilliant straight A student with his basket of classic summer food – we have pasta salad, fresh fruit skewers, muffaletta sandwiches, and delicious brownies for dessert!”

Adam’s unease was tangible. Helen was the first to bid. “$500!” She gave Adam a half smile and he attempted to smile back, but it fell short. Ronan almost growled when he heard the next bid.

“$1,000!” Tad Carruthers grinned at Adam, who looked like he wanted to die.

“$1,250!”

“$1,500!”

“$2,000!” Helen sighed when Tad raised her again. She shrugged at Adam with another half smile. No one else was bidding.

“$2,500? Going once?”

Ronan didn’t even realize the words were out of his mouth. “$3,000.”

Tad glared at him. Adam’s body froze. They went back and forth until Tad gave up at $4,500. Adam stalked off stage towards Ronan. “I didn’t need you to fucking save me from that asshole trying to make fun of me.”

Ronan’s heart panged and he responded defensively. “What, I can’t enjoy your company?”

“Dammit this is worse than Gansey with Blue, Ronan! I’m not fucking for sale.”

“I’m not the one who signed you up for this!”

“No, but you’re the one who kept bidding!” Adam’s one hand held the basket, the other clenching so tight his skin was white.

“Did you really want to eat with Tad?” Ronan shot right back, wishing he could just say that he wanted to take Adam out like this. No pretense, just them.

“It would’ve been awkward and awful but it wouldn’t be this shit. It was bad enough having to get up there and be… be auctioned off. I don’t need my… my friends to pay to be with me.” Adam wasn’t sure if he wanted to cry or hit something.

“Dammit, Parrish! I’m not trying to own you.”

“You don’t need to save me either! I didn’t ask for you to!” They were out of earshot from the crowd but their voices were rising.

“No you never do, do you?” Ronan regretted the words as soon as they flew out of his mouth.

Adam glowered. “Here’s your fucking basket, asshole.” He shoved the basket into Ronan’s arms and stalked to the parking lot, driving off.

Ronan went back to Monmouth, slamming his door and leaving the basket on the table in the living room area. He threw himself on the bed. He knew precisely what drove him to bid. He could’ve handled Gansey’s sister spending the time with Adam. As much as she joked about kidnapping him, she would only think of him as a brother. But watching Tad Carruthers, who had been drooling over Adam since he arrived at Aglionby, get the satisfaction of sitting with him with a picnic basket of food? He couldn’t do it. He turned up his music and lay face down on his bed, wishing that he didn’t always make things worse.

* * *

Adam sat at St. Agnes, stripped down to his boxers to deal with the heat, fuming. Today was bad enough before Ronan started bidding. Adam didn’t want to be owned by anyone and this auction made him feel lower than low. He was sacrificing his dignity for his scholarship. Then Ronan came along and made even that feel illegitimate. Logically, he knew he should be glad it was Ronan and not Tad. Part of him whispered that he wanted it to be because Ronan wanted that time with him, just the two of them, without anything supernatural hanging over their heads. Adam thought about the way Ronan’s eyes looked during their fight, flashing from hurt to angry. Adam often thought they looked hungry and insatiable. He knew he was being ridiculous; the way that the anger took over his mind and body in a flash shaming him. He stretched out on the floor, frustrated at the world. Before long, he pulled his pillow down and faded off to sleep, trying to keep cool in more ways than one.

The impromptu nap left Adam feeling dried out and irritable, even though his body was pleased with the hour of rest it scraped. Adam had just pulled out his textbooks when he heard a squeak on the stairs; the fourth from the top always did squeak if you didn’t step on it just right. By the time he made it to the door, there was no one around; however, the basket from earlier sat by his door, a note stuck to it.

_Eat. I didn’t bid for the damn food._

Adam glared at the basket, unsure if he should be more pissed off by the note. However, the food did need to be eaten soon and he was aware of how long it had been since he’d had a good meal. With a groan, he pulled it inside and settled down to eat, the extras going to the fridge for later, and do his homework, desperately trying to focus on that instead of his thoughts.

* * *

The silent treatment and misery lasted for over a week, hanging like a dense cloud over the group as they tramped through woods and ate pizza. Gansey’s concerned looks darted between the two boys with unsuccessful attempts to get them to communicate. Blue shared these looks and added her own snarky comments but failed to even properly rile up Ronan. She was the one who ultimately came up with the game plan, Get These Idiots to Talk.

They organized a Glendower meeting at Monmouth on a Wednesday night when Adam was free. Frustration hummed just beneath his skin, leaving him antsy despite the exhaustion he fought daily. Gansey flashed his presidential smile as Adam jiggled his leg and sat against the wall, as Ronan was on the couch. “All right! I am going to go and pick up the pizza and Jane from Nino’s. It’ll only be a minute.” Noah and Adam nodded, Ronan continuing to look disinterested.

Noah looked back and forth. “I know what you’re thinking.” Both boys scowled at him. “What’s more interesting, though, is what you’re trying to NOT think and fighting yourself on.” He continued to talk between them, not directing his comments specifically to either despondent teen. “I think… I think that you two need to make up before the rest of us go crazy. Before you two go crazy.”

Ronan scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

Noah pouted and focused on Adam. “You don’t fight this long with Gansey when he’s being inconsiderate and making comments that upset you. Why is this any different?”

“Ronan LITERALLY BOUGHT ME!” Adam couldn’t contain his emotions that had simmered below the surface for the last week and jumped up. “Even Gansey didn’t actually do that.” He glared at Ronan.

Ronan glared back. “Well sorry for thinking you’d rather spend time with me than with Tad fucking Carruthers.”

“At least I could expect that he would treat me like shit. I didn’t expect that from my best friend.” Adam had faced the wall, hands clenched as he willed himself to calm down, words swirling through his head. _Go ahead. Hit him. Show him that you’re no better than your father. That you should still be in the trailer. That you deserve to be treated like a nobody. _His body shook, wracked with barely contained emotions, flickering through him like a movie montage. “Tad is always treating me like dirt. Just going out of his way to show how he’s better than me because of his money.”

Ronan actually let out a harsh laugh. “Are you shitting me? You seriously think he’s trying to treat you like dirt? Tad can’t-take-his-eyes-off-you Carruthers? Tad, who spends half his day at school trying to fucking flirt with you? The one who is so desperate to spend time with you he is willing to spend thousands of dollars to go on a date with you?”

“Yeah, right. Besides, what does that say about you, then? You won that goddamn auction.” Adam turned and didn’t even register the lack of ghostly presence in the room.

“Maybe that I’m even more fucking desperate than him to get your attention! You are so fucking oblivious to the fact that half the school is head over fucking heels for you. No one seems to be able to get your damn attention. So why wouldn’t someone go to that length to spend some time with you?”

Adam stared at Ronan, face blank as he processed what was just said. “You could’ve just asked. You could’ve shown up and told me to get in your damn car.” His voice was barely audible as his heart raced. “You could’ve done any number of things. But you did the one thing… the thing you know that I hate more anything. You know how much I loathe when…”

Ronan crossed over to him, cutting him off by laying his hand on his shoulder. “Parrish. Shut up a minute.”

The two stood there like that, working to wrap their heads around the heated conversation that somehow neither had walked out on. Ronan let his hand fall. Despite the way the frustration had been sucked out of the room, the tension had just continued to build, laying thick like the southern heat of summer. Adam was first to speak. “Ronan…” The taller boy’s heart tightened at the uncertain and breathy way he said his name.

“Adam.” He plucked up his courage to look his long-time crush in the eye, heart hammering in his chest. When he saw the other’s eyes flick to his lips and then moisten his own, he moved. Slowly, giving Adam plenty of time to stop him, he leaned down to press his lips gently against the chapped lips he had dreamt about many times, hand gently cupping his face. Pulling back, he looked for some indication of whether that was okay, hand sliding down, ready to flee if things went wrong.

Adam surged up, wrapping one hand around the back of Ronan’s shaved head and resting the other on his chest, returning the kiss in a sweet but demanding way. They leaned against the wall, shaking slightly. “I’m still mad at you.” Adam muttered, eyes focusing on the imperfections of the floor. Ronan let out a breathy laugh. “But I… I’ve wanted to do that for a while. If I’m being totally honest with myself.”

“I’ve wanted to do that pretty much since I met you.” He paused. “I fucked up. I wasn’t thinking at the time and I knew pretty much as soon as that dude said sold that I was in deep shit.” He gulped. “Fuck, Parrish, I didn’t mean to screw up our friendship.”

Adam scoffed but a small smile slipped past his defenses. “I think we’ve passed the point of friendship now.” His stomach flipped at the wry smile that crossed Ronan’s face.

“Thank fuck for that.” Adam couldn’t help but laugh at that response, eyes finally returning to the man standing next to him. He heard a phone beep somewhere, distracting the two enough for Adam to look at his watch.

“They set this up.” He spoke matter of factly. “Otherwise, they’d have been back a while ago.”

Ronan grinned. “Mario Kart?”

When Gansey, Blue, and Noah returned to the sound of cussing floating down the stairs, they nervously entered only to have a collective sigh of relief at the image of Adam and Ronan sitting side by side on the couch, pushing each other with their shoulders, cussing as they took turns falling off Rainbow Road.


End file.
